Do you need a reason to celebrate on a Tuesday? We have a good reason to celebrate tonight...

We've all been on the edge of our seats waiting for the final closing date of the Miracle City Mall property. I am delighted and relieved to say that as of today, the final signature sealed the deal and ownership of the mall property has officially changed hands!

Go ahead... I'll give you a minute to cheer...

First, let me say thank you again to this community! We needed you to come out in support for this project. You showed up in record numbers (over 3,000) at the Party at the Towne Centre, you showed up at meetings, some of you spoke in front of County Commission and City Council for the first time in your life. You talked about the quality of life that you wanted for you and your families and for North Brevard. You believed with me that Titusville deserves better. I am so proud of you for expressing your thoughts and standing up for your community.

Many of you know this has been a very difficult deal to put together with a lot of hurdles. The condition of the property has continued to rapidly deteriorate. Several developers have come and gone unable to make an acceptable offer or unable to obtain investors. This project was not an easy sell and developers generally didn't want to touch it, especially after the impact of ending of the Shuttle Program and the subsequent cancelling of the Constellation Program.

Real estate deals of this size are not easy to do. There have been several times over the past two years when this deal fell apart. This has been a battle to work with the owner, to find a developer who could make it happen, and to work with our government counterparts to support the project. It has required out-of-the-box thinking and true grassroots community involvement to help tell our story, not only to Allen Goins and his partners, Exxcel Management, but also to take that message out to prospective tenants and investors. With your help, through emails, Facebook and your own time, we have done that! We have developers who stand behind this project and believe in this community! There isn't another project of this size, that will pump 65 million dollars into our local economy, and create hundreds of jobs over the next few years. Today was a major milestone.

A HUGE thank you to 4 out of 5 of our County Commissioners who saw the wisdom in helping make this happen. A HUGE thank you to the City of Titusville for their unanimous support and encouragement! And again, a HUGE thanks to this community for showing up in numbers to show your support.

So what's next? The developers have contracted with an engineering firm and an architectural firm and will begin the design work. Then they must go through approval processes that must be met with the City of Titusville. They have already requested a list of local vendors from the Greater Titusville Area Chamber of Commerce and intend to hire local as much as possible. As good as this news is, there's still a lot of work to do and we will still need your support. I know there will be more hurdles, but think of how far we've come and the ones we've already knocked down. Things are bright!

Once the engineering and architectural design work are complete the developers will plan for demolition. As soon as we know a demo date, we will schedule a "Wrecking Ball" party and invite everyone out to celebrate this next major milestone! We look forward to bringing over 3,000 people to the site for the biggest demo party ever!

So tonight, when you sit down to dinner, raise your glass. Make a toast to all of our blessings, to Greater Titusville Renaissance and to our future!

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